Ad4dcss/Digital Citizenship

Except for the occasional plagiarized passage or unattributed reference in student research papers, most veteran K-12 educators have had little experience dealing with copyright issues in their classrooms. With the advent of the Internet, however, their need to know about copyright law and to understand its implications for such activities as Internet research, downloading programs and documents, creating class Web sites, and installing software on school networks has increased dramatically.

Workshop materials here were designed to teach school leaders about social networking. There are both Trainer agendas and Workshop participant agendas here so that educators could easily use the materials to train others. Links to additional support materials can be found on the sidebar/Quickstart section.

With the proliferation of Web 2.0 tools, rapidly emerging technologies and portable electronic devices, your AUP may need frequent updating. In this section of the CTAP CyberSafety Project web site, you'll find helpful resources for all areas of consideration, including cell phone policies.

Lesson Plans and curriculum materials that introduce students to a way of economic thinking.

The K12HSN Interactive Desktop Solution (KIDS) program provides free Polycom's PVX desktop videoconferencing software in order to bring videoconferencing into the classroom. The program is available for all K-12 educators working for a California school.

As a joint effort of CDE, CTAP and CUE, the Student Technology Showcase serves to inform parents, teachers, administrators, legislators and higher education representatives about curriculum-based student technology projects being undertaken in Kindergarten through grade 12.

When Christopher Laub was in the third and fourth grades, chemotherapy treatments for his leukemia kept him out of school, feeling sick and weak. But through a close collaboration between Bel Aire Elementary School [Tiburon, CA] and Apple - as well as a creative use of iChat AV - Laub was able to continue with his classes. Thanks to the system that he dubbed "iCan," the young student remained connected to his classmates and his studies.

The Stock Market Game™ program offers a vast library of learning materials correlated to national voluntary and state educational standards in Math, Business Education, Economics, English/Language Arts, Technology, Social Studies and Family and Consumer Sciences. Students invest a hypothetical $100,000 online and use real internet research and news updates to simulate the stock market experience.

Here is an ambitious effort by the Saddleback Valley Unified School District [California], which has 39 schools in the district. They have their own Online-TV Station! Check out their news section and how they presented AERIES to their teachers. Very clever.

In collaboration with several content area organizations, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills developed a series of ICT Literacy Maps illustrating the intersection between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy and core academic subjects including English, mathematics, science and social studies (civics/government, geography, economics, history). The maps enable educators to gain concrete examples of how ICT Literacy can be integrated into core subjects, while making the teaching and learning of core subjects more relevant to the demands of the 21st century.

You can print this list of books and free downloads for parents and distribute it at your next PTA meeting.

CTAP Region IV has distributed 10,000 wall-size posters to San Francisco Bay Area Schools through a grant provided by AT&T Education. The posters are also available as a free download for schools nationwide.

Based out of NYC, the Global Kids Digital Media Initiative is a series of interrelated programs designed to support teenagers to think critically about the role of digital media in their lives and document their experiences in various media. It is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

This teacher had his physics students describe Einstein by creating his Facebook profile. Since they couldn't access Facebook at school, he had his students create a mock-up of the profile using Microsoft Publisher. He provided the students with a Publisher template, some screenshots of actual Facebook profiles and links to Einstein information to get them started.

Class Blog used to support reading Richard III. Social networking used to demonstrate understanding of content. This same site used to have the Richard III theme used as a MYSPACE page, with students taking on the roles of characters within his circle of influence. Check out all of the student comments for each blog entry!

This research group out of Harvard includes Danah Boyd. Live web casts and chat. The Berkman Center's Interactive collection features conversations with and talks by leading cyber-scholars, entrepreneurs, activists, and policymakers as they explore topics such as: the factors that influence knowledge creation and dissemination in the digital age; the character of power as the worlds of governance, business, citizenship, and the media meet the Internet; and the opportunities, role, and limitations of new technologies in learning.

Launched in April, the award-winning NetBasics site from New Zealand is composed of 10 highly entertaining flash animations following the travails of the Jones family as they negotiate their way around the Internet. The series includes a collection of good and bad characters in fictional adventures that engage users while they deliver a serious message about the security threats we face every day online.

John Palfrey & Urs Gasser [Berkman Center] identify 9 myths about Digital Natives and offer succinct interpretations based on research and observations of youth. Educators involved in digital citizenship efforts may find a shift in thinking is necessary in how we educate students about issues related to online safety, copyright, privacy etc....where their confusions are and what they do/don't understand. It's also important to understand the significance of social groups and online communities on our youth and how they motivate development of friendship-driven and interest-driven content.

Convenient links to dozens of educational and nonprofit groups working on CyberSafety Issues and the education of teachers, students and parents.

Links to over 80 education, government and nonprofit groups providing cybersafety and digital citizenship resources.

Merle Marsh wrote this highly informative article on Teaching Children to Be Responsible Users of Technology, which includes real-life incidents involving legal and ethical abuses of technologies. She also provides recommended educator activities and teaching suggestions.